Armina and Tomias as drawn by Yeswonderful.
Armina Rogue. Duaghter of former Captain Valdrisk Half-Ear and Niece to former admiral Tanya S. Rainblade-Ryalor.
From the Bunk[]
Nickname: Jury's Out On Being Nuts
Species: Fox
Gender:Female
Weapon: Bow
Appearance:[]
In Fyador:
Armina is a grey fox with surprisingly clean fur for being a street orphan. She has only one outfit; a torn, dingy brown shirt and slacks of the same color, with a pair of leather sandals that are fast falling apart. She has long, jet-black headfur which subtly curves around her thin frame.
Weapons: Armina has only one weapon- a thin, rusted knife she uses to defend her person.
Personality: Armina is moody and rebellious, oft refusing to take orders from anyone. When she does take orders, she does so grudgingly, and takes steps to make sure her displeasure is known. She often uses the curse "Asmodeus" or its abusive, "Go to Asmodeus!" Secretly she only resents the parents who abandoned her, but she takes it out on those who would help her. All she truly wants is for someone to understand her, and to know who her parents were and why they abandoned her.
In the Imperium:
Armina has lost much of her animosity since coming to the Imperium, though she is still quite headstrong and, at times, rude. She rarely uses the word "Asmodeus" as an abusive anymore, though she continues to use it as an expletive quite often. She is oft found in the rigging of the Hide, the only place she can escape Anithias, who is extremely acrophobic.
Age: Armina turned 20 on Thermidor 8th, at least by her own reckoning. She does not know when her real nameday is, and so goes by the nameday assigned to her by the orphanage.
Clothes: Armina can usually be found wearing a green blouse and black pants. She likes to keep her hair neat, a luxury she did not have in Fyador.
Tattoo: Armina has one tattoo: a stylized rose that sits on her wrist just above her right radial artery. At the rose's center are the letters AR and TR, representing her and Tomias. A vine winds around her wrist to connect at the opposite sides.
Weapon: Armina wields a bow given to her by Tox. She has proved to be an excellent shot with it, though her aim dissolves completely when she is angry or preoccupied. Armina generally reserves use of her bow for situations that require it. For her everyday defense, she carries a number of knives secreted about her person.
"Problems": Armina is, to put it succinctly, unbalanced. She is obsessive-compulsive, has a poor attention span, and has even experienced frightening hallucinations and splits in personality. All these things make her somewhat difficult to handle, especially for the two todds in her life, Tomias and Valentine. Tomias experienced first-paw one of these splits in personality, and neither like to recall the incident. She also has difficulty committing to any one beast, a thorn in her relationships with Tomias and Valentine.
Since becoming an officer, she has developed a number of coping mechanisms for dealing with the stress. She has begun to chew on her tail again, a childish and embarrassing habit that she promises she will eventually drop. She has also started taking medication for her nerves and painkillers for her arm, which, since being broken once, continues to pain her on damp or rainy days. Since Bully Harbour is renowned for its bad weather, this is nine days out of ten. To cap it all off, she has started struggling with alcoholism.
Over time, Armina's relationships have steadily grown worse. Her relationship with Tomias was almost pushed to the breaking point when she began to see another todd behind his back. Valentine no longer even acknowledges her existence, and her new toddfriend, Bridger Vorsky, learned about Armina's other relationships via Tomias hitting him for kissing his girlfriend. As for relations with her aunt, an emerging desire for independence has rather put Armina at odds with Tanya's protectiveness. All of these things combined are pushing Armina toward dark and unnatural practices.
Biography:[]
Excerpt from Humphrey's Notable Figures of Imperial History, 1730-1735 Edition
It is the opinion of the author that in the review of this half-decade of history, no one person can be said to have so drastically affected the course of Imperial history as Armina Rogue (c.1714-1733), also called Armina Half-Ear, Armina Rainblade, the Rogue Minister, and other such appellations and aliases. This impact lies not in her reign as a captain or minister, both of which were short and noted for their drastic failure in leadership and management, but in the psychological scar she left upon the Harbor and the changes wrought because of it.
Reliable information regarding the early history of Armina Rogue is scarce, with most accounts arising from hearsay and gossip. It is generally acknowledged that she was born in Summerdock, a small port at Eastisle in Fyador, but further information is lacking. Her parentage is still speculated upon with some degree of curiosity, especially in light of certain accusations made within the last two years (See entry, "Vaelora Ryalor"). Rogue herself acknowledged her natural father as Valdrisk Half-Ear, a former captain of The Golden Hide and brother to Admiral Tanya Rainblade-Ryalor, but empirical confirmation of this relationship is unavailable. Popular speculation infers that at least one of her parents was a member of the noble Ryalor family, though the incomplete genealogical record makes this impossible to confirm either. Whatever the case, it is agreed that Armina was baseborn, and regardless of the quality of her stock, she attracted the attention of powerful beasts in the later years of her life.
Records recovered from the Nationalist Government of Fyador at Eastisle indicate that in the year 1714, only three orphans with the name Armina (an unpopular name at the time due to changing political ideology) were submitted to the care of the State. Whether Armina Rogue was one of them, and at which point she left the state system, remains unknown; in any case, it seems likely that 'Rogue' was a self-chosen appellation, as no surname of that kind is recorded in the Geneological Records of Fyador. Popular tale asserts that Rogue made her life on the streets from a young age, gaining a skill in theft that would bring her to the attention of many powerful beasts in Imperial Society.
Armina Rogue first appears on record by that name in 1728, on the ship's registry of The Golden Hide. At the same time, a Declaration of Affiliation was filed with the Ministry of Misanthropy, denoting then-Aide de Camp Anithias Freedom and his wife Julia Freedom as her lawful caretakers until her coming of age. Interviews conducted with fellow crewbeasts who were also registered at this time suggest that the bond was one of legal contrivance hoisted upon all parties by then-Captain Tanya Rainblade-Ryalor; several crewbeasts attest to a deep-seated enmity between Rogue and Officer Freedom, which, the author notes, appears to have become a powerful and defining relationship in the last half-century of Imperial politics. This legal bond was, in any case, short-lived; not eight months later, Freedom jointly petitioned with Captain Rainblade-Ryalor to transfer custody of Rogue to the Captain.
For years, Armina Rogue appeared to do little to acquit herself as an exceptional beast in any respect. Fellow crewbeasts spoke of her in interview with mixed praise and criticism. The most direct of her colleagues assessed her as being confrontational, prickly, and frequently insubordinate, with no respect for rules or decorum. They also allege that her only saving grace was her skill at ingratiating herself to a few superiors, such as newly-made Admiral Rainblade-Ryalor or future husband and Golden Hide first mate Jeshal the Ironclaw. A few beasts even attested that she developed crippling psychoses such as split personality disorder early in her service, but that protection from above kept her in service. Other crewbeasts speak more sympathetically of her, painting her as a lonely, troubled youth with a family history of mental illness reacting to a poor upbringing by acting out. Testimony from officers of the Fogey Police, of whom she was also a member, confirm both viewpoints as well. As with her service in the navy, for many years Armina failed to gain any special note or commendation in the protection services either.
Armina's first promotion came in 1731 at the paws of Captain Jeshal the Ironclaw, who appointed her to the position of Second Mate in what several crewbeasts described as a sudden and unexpected promotion in the middle of an expedition. Though even the most forgiving of her crewbeasts describe her as an incapable officer prone to anxiety attacks when under pressure, she was just a few months later promoted once more to the position of First Mate after the Ironclaw was made Minister of Commerce. Rumors persist that, despite the Ironclaw allegedly having a clandestine relationship with new Minister of War Rainblade-Ryalor, he also had a tryst with Rogue as well, all the more controversial since Rainblade-Ryalor had just declared Rogue to be her niece. For many commentators, this serves as validation of their theory that Armina Rogue only advanced thanks to the favoritism and nepotism of her family and their affiliates, though it must be stressed that no empirical evidence exists to back this claim.
The turning point in the life of Armina Rogue came in the latter months of 1731. While away on personal leave in Alkamar, explosions in the Ministry of War and Ministry of Commerce buildings killed her aunt Tanya Rainblade-Ryalor and uncle-by-marriage (and alleged lover) Jeshal the Ironclaw. Returning home, Rogue found herself not only the (alleged) last member of her family, but the new captain of the Golden Hide. The impact on her psychosis, her crew reports, was immediate. She rapidly declined into alcoholism, leaving her ship to be run by her officers, namely Zakim Malik, his sister and future captain Aleyah Malik, and Colonel W.J. Khan. She also began to display signs of schizophrenia, including frequently conversing with herself while in empty rooms, rampant paranoia, and emotional volatility far beyond even her norm.
Exactly how her relationship with Bridger Vorsky, a noted millionaire and philanthropist, played into this time is difficult to say. Their relationship certainly was certainly rocky, given that upon their first outing, Vorsky was publicly assaulted by Armina's current beau, Tomias Redford. This incident appears to have ended Redford and Rogue's relationship and marked the beginning of her relationship with Vorsky. Some observers to their relationship state that while in Vorsky's presence Armina seemed more sane than her usual state, though others contest that within the months leading up to what the author deems her "split from reality", her condition had degraded to the point where even Vorsky could not avoid noting her change in personality. In the final stages of her psychosis, Rogue became what was described as "emotionally cold" and "detached". A spate of especially chilling murders, mostly in the criminal underworld, were eventually linked to Rogue, though not in time to catch and prosecute her. A former officer, speaking of Rogue during this time, describes as being obsessive about a potential attack against her person, her ship and the Imperium, though she refused to share any information on this topic with those around her.
The moment of absolute split from reality came on Dismembre 7th, 1732. The crew of the Hide awoke to find the captain's cabin alight, the rudder jammed to lock the Hide on collision course with dangerous reefs, and a crewbeast named Valentine Graye stabbed through the throat, pinned to the ship's wheel. Narrowly averting disaster, they investigated and found a mess of documentary evidence in Rogue's cabin suggesting that she had interpreted a massive conspiracy at the heart of the Imperium, centering with an impostor serving in place of the Emperor. The crew immediately sailed to alert Imperial forces at Merith Cove, only to discover that Rogue had gotten their first and reported her crew as mutineers. The crew were detained for long enough that by the time the truth was realized, Rogue had escaped, not to be seen again. From this point Armina Rogue was disavowed as Minister of War, deemed an Enemy of the Crown, and became a cultural icon of death on par with such notorious serial killers such as Jak the Reaper.
On Thermidor 10th 1733, the body of Armina Rogue was found washed up in the harbor near the Imperial Docks. An autopsy confirmed that she died from a sword wound to the chest. Though speculation abounds as to the identity of her killer, no one has been confirmed as the true culprit. Several beasts have come forward at different points across the following year, but inconsistencies between their accounts and evidence on the body led the Fogey Police to reject their claims.
In 1734, noted adventure writer Gerry Grumpnus published a new volume in his assassination adventure series titled "Death Comes to Armina Rogue", featuring fictional bounty hunter Dueth Bladeclaw tracking the serial killer across the city until he delivers her eventual demise. Despite high hopes from his publisher, the volume proved to be a commercial flop, barely grossing enough to cover production costs.